A major window of opportunity opened for Seton Hall baseball last season. But just how long will that window stay open for the Pirates?

The Hall turned a struggle of a 2022 campaign into a much better one in 2023, and though it didn’t get back to the NCAA Tournament, the Pirates were one of the four teams in the BIG EAST Conference left standing and fighting for the right to earn the league’s auto-bid to the regional round. 

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The Pirates were plenty good and undoubtedly the “best of the rest” in the league behind NCAA Tournament teams UConn and Xavier, and that was a major step forward for the program.

Here’s all you need to know about Seton Hall baseball now that the 2024 season is underway.

How Did Seton Hall Baseball Do In 2023?

The BIG EAST’s biggest surprise of last season, Seton Hall improved by 13 wins from 2022 to 2023, winning 31 games for the Pirates’ most victories in a single year since 2016. 

It was a big step forward for The Hall, which saw its dugout staff take home a deserved BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year nod at season’s end, a year after failing to win 20 games.

Seton Hall showed big improvements in a multitude of team statistical categories. The Pirates’ 40 home runs, for instance, were the team’s most since 1999. 

The No. 3 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament, Seton Hall’s successive losses to Xavier and Georgetown knocked it out of the postseason.

Who Coaches Seton Hall Baseball?

The Sheppard family and Seton Hall baseball go hand in hand, as a Sheppard has coached the Pirates every year since 1973. 

Current coach Rob Sheppard, played under his father, legendary coach Mike Sheppard, at The Hall from 1989-1992, before eventually coming back around in 1995 and working under his dad as an assistant coach with the Pirates. 

Rob got his first taste of leading a program in 2001 as interim coach, when Mike missed the entire season while recovering from heart surgery, and after his father left coaching for good following the 2003 season, Rob first was named the Pirates’ interim coach, then permanent coach in 2005.

Has Seton Hall Baseball Ever Won The College World Series?

No, Seton Hall baseball has never won the College World Series, but it has appeared on the biggest stage in college baseball four times—in 1964, 1971, 1974 and 1975. 

However, despite that past success, the Pirates qualify infrequently for the NCAA Tournament nowadays, with their last trip to the regional round coming in 2011. 

Notable Returning Players

Staus Pokrovsky, C

Staus Pokrovsky was never really a major factor in The Hall’s plans until the 2023 season—he'd only played in 38 games with the Pirates in his previous three years with the team. But his breakout campaign was an impressive one. 

The All-BIG EAST first-team pick bounced around being a catcher and a designated hitter a year ago and led his team with 11 home runs for the most long balls by a Pirate in a single season in 23 years. He also recorded a .742 slugging percentage in conference play to lead the BIG EAST. 

His 43 RBIs in 2023 were well over double the number of RBIs he had in the prior three years combined (18). 

Early in 2024, Pokrovsky hasn’t appeared to have slowed down. He’s ripped out to a .462 start at the plate across his first three games of the season, a haul that includes a monster 5-for-6 day with two doubles and two RBIs in Seton Hall’s win over Michigan State.

Max Viera, INF

Crossover readers from the Coastal Athletic Association may remember Max Viera as a sweet-swinging underclassman at Northeastern in 2022, and he built off that potential in a big way once he transferred to Seton Hall for his junior season. 

The former All-CAA first-team selection became an All-BIG EAST first-teamer last year. The shortstop paced Seton Hall in hits, runs, doubles and RBIs—becoming the first Pirate to tally 40 runs and 40 RBIs in a season since 2013—and was a key to the Pirates’ resurgence as an upper-tier BIG EAST program. 

Speedy (23 stolen bases) and sure-handed (28 double plays turned at shortstop), Viera was an easy preseason All-BIG EAST pick heading into 2024, thanks to his strong junior year and a good summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League (.264 average in 106 at-bats), and he’ll once again be an important person in The Hall’s plans.

Notable Newcomers

Kyle Lyons, OF

Kyle Lyons is a Bucknell grad-transfer who hit over .300 each of the past two seasons. As a starting center fielder for the Bison, Lyons was a second-team All-Patriot League selection last season, putting up career-best numbers—a .321 average with 51 hits and 22 RBIs—in 159 at-bats in 2023 (he batted .301 in 2022). 

A reliable glove in the outfield with a .984 career fielding percentage (five errors in 305 career chances), as well, Lyons already has earned the trust of the Pirates’ coaching staff and gotten a start for all three of The Hall’s games (as of Wednesday evening) of the 2024 season

Jackson Balzan, LHP

Jackson Balzan spent four impressive seasons at Division III Salisbury before coming to The Hall this past offseason. Most notably he led the Sea Gulls to the national championship in 2021. That year, he was named the Most Outstanding Player for the final part of the Division III Baseball Championship. 

Balzan finished with a 27-6 career record at Salisbury as a four-year starter, holding a 2.97 career ERA and striking out 262 batters in 236 innings pitched. 

The Pirates scooped him up as a grad transfer for this season and immediately flung him into the deep end, a challenge he didn’t back down from. 

Balzan came on in relief during Seton Hall’s Opening-Day matchup with No. 20 Iowa, and though the Pirates lost 5-2, it wasn’t because of anything Balzan did. He threw four innings of one-hit ball with seven strikeouts in his impressive Division I debut.

Seton Hall Baseball Schedule 2024

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2024 Seton Hall Baseball Roster

How To Watch BIG EAST Baseball in 2024

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